- Werner Schwab
Werner Schwab (
February 4 1958 -January 1 1994 ) was anAustria nplaywright and visual artist.From 1978 to 1982 he studied sculpture at the
Akademie der bildenden Künste inVienna . During the 1980s he worked as a sculptor and woodcutter.Schwab's first play "Die Präsidentinnen" was produced at the
Theater im Künstlerhaus in Vienna in 1990. Between then and his death four years later he wrote sixteen plays, eight of which were produced during his lifetime, making his career one of the briefest, most spectacular and most controversial in contemporary German-languagetheatre .Schwab's work tends to be extremely scatological, full of images of surreal violence and degradation, and his texts exploit the
German language 's capacity forneologism to a remarkable degree; they are also firmly within a native Austrian tradition ofBlack comedy . He is very difficult to translate, but amongst English-language dramatists, certain stylistic parallels might be drawn between his work and that ofSteven Berkoff andEnda Walsh .Schwab was a heavy drinker who was said to have written his plays late at night while listening to loud music (particularly the band
Einstürzende Neubauten , whom he was friends with). His body was found on New Year's Day 1994.Bibliography
Plays
* "Die Präsidentinnen". 1990.
* "Übergewicht, unwichtig: Unform. Ein europäisches Abendmahl". 1991.
* "Volksvernichtung oder meine Leber ist sinnlos". 1991.
* "Mein Hundemund". 1992.
* "Mesaillance aber wir ficken uns prächtig". 1992.
* "Der Himmel mein Lieb meine sterbende Beute". 1992.
* "Offene Gruben und offene Fenster. Ein Fall von Ersprechen". 1992.
* "Pornogeographie. Sieben Gerüchte". 1993.
* "Endlich tot, endlich keine Luft mehr". 1994.
* "Mariedl/Antiklima(x)". 1994.
* "Mein Brustkorb: Mein Helm". 1994.
* "Troilluswahn und Cressidatheater". 1995.
* "Eskalation ordinär. Ein Schwitzkastenschwank in sieben Affekten". 1995.Novel
*"Joe Mc Vie alias Josef Thierschädl". 1988 (first published 2007).
Books by Werner Schwab
* "Fäkaliendramen". (Droschl, 1991) ISBN 3-85420-221-0
* "Königskomödien". (Droschl, 1996) ISBN 3-85420-289-X
* "Dramen III". (Droschl, 1994) ISBN 3-85420-391-8* "Holy Mothers", translation by Meredith Oakes of "Die Präsidentinnen" (Oberon, 1999) ISBN 1-84002-113-6
*"An Anthology of Plays", translated by Michael Mitchell (Ariadne Press, 1999) ISBN 1-57241-064-7*People Annihilation or my Liver is Sick, translated by Michael Roloff [Ariadne Press] U.S. Premiere, Chicago, Trapdoor Theater, 2005
Sources
*Ulm Sanford, Gerlinde, Afterword to Schwab, "An Anthology of Plays" (Ariadne, 1999)
External links
* [http://www.inst.at/trans/9Nr/leirvag9.htm Critical essay on Werner Schwab]
* [http://www.literaturhaus.at/buch/buch/rez/weschwab/werke.html Bibliography and brief biography (in German)]
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